The Nigerian Senate has just passed the country’s 2016 budget, a headway for the parliament, having witnessed disagreements over the budget in a bid to remove all ambiguities last month. Under two separate themes, Nigerians experienced some level of embarrassment in the eyes of the world when the missing budget and the budget of corruption became the ongoing conversation on and off social media around the world.

According to the country’s budget office, the budget size is about N6,060,677,358,227 while the deficit is N2.2 trillion.

The budget was passed regardless of some ‘outstanding lapses’ that were neither filled by the Executive nor corrected by the parliament. Also, the current figures indicate a difference from the N6,077,680,000,000 that was proposed earlier by President Muhammadu Buhari in December 2015, when the budget was first presented before a joint sitting of the National Assembly.

The passing of the 2016 budget followed the consideration of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, chaired by Sen. Danjuma Goje of the All Progressives Congress. The Gombe State Senator, Danjuma Goje, indicated the breakdown as follows:

Aggregate Expenditure 6,060,677,358,227

Statutory Transfers – N351,370,000,000

Debt Service – N1,475,320,000,000

Recurrent Expenditure – N2,646389,236,196

Capital Expenditure – N1,587,598,122,031

Fiscal Deficit – N2,204,936,925,711.16.

The budget is predicated on an oil benchmark of $38 dollars per barrel; daily crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels and an exchange rate of N197 to an American dollar.

According to the Premium Times, Head of the Senate Finance Committee, John Enoh, said this is the first time since 1999 that the National Assembly would approve a figure lower than proposed by the executive, which is characteristic of discipline on the part of the Senate.

After passing the budget, the Senate adjourned plenary to April 12, 2016.

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